Automatic weighing appliance.



PATENTED AUG. 13, 190?.

B. H. SHORMAN. AUTOMATIC WEIGHING APPLIANGB.

APPLICATION FILED MAE. 20.1907.

2 8HEBTS-SHEBT 1.

[NVENTOR WITNESSES PATENTED AUG. 13, 1907.

B. H. SHORMAN. AUTOMATIC WEIGHING APPLIANCE.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

APPLICATION FILED [AB-20.1907- [NVENTOR K 171/5770 rwa 0/2 ,l' I I: I *aI Aflorzzeys EDGAR H. SHORMAN, OF MARION, IOWA.

AUTOMATIC WEIGHING APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent Patented Aug. 13, 1907.

Application filed March 20, 1907. Serial No. 363,420.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDGAR II. SHORMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Marion, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic WeighingAppliances; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in automaticweighing appliances and more particularly to that class adapted to beused for weighing grain products or the like and my object is to providea pair of scales and place thereon a receptacle to receive the grainproducts and weigh the same.

A further object is to provide an automatically operated door to stopthe flow of the grain products when a certain quantity of the same hasbeen deposited in the receptacle.

A still further object is to provide means for holding the door in itsopened position and a still further object is to provide releasing meansfor the door holding mechanism whereby the door will be releasedcoincident to the operation of the scales. 7

Other objects and advantages will be hereinafter referred to and moreparticularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which are made a part of this application,Figure l. is a side elevation of my improved form of weighing mechanismshowing the same in position as when the grain products are beingdeposited in the receptacle. Fig. 2 is a sectional view as seen on line2-2 Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view as seen on line 3*3 Fig.2. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the weigher, showing a slightlymodified "form of door operating mechanism, and, Fig. 5 is a detailperspective view of the trigger employed for operating the same.

Referring to the drawings in which similar reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the several views, 1 indicates a frame tothe upper end of which is secured a hopper 2, into which is adapted tobe disposed a quantity of the substance to be weighed, the floor 3 ofsaid hopper converging to a common center and is provided with an outletpipe 4.

The contents of the hopper 2 passes through the outlet pipe f into achute 5, said chute being provided in its length with a floor section 6in the central portion of which is an opening 7 through which theproduct passes into a receptacle 8. The receptacle 8 is placed upon oneplatform 9 of a balance scale 10 and by placing a predetermined numberof weights 11 on the opposite platform 12 of the scale it will be seenthat a certain quantity of the product will be deposited in the receptacle before the weight of the product will overcome the weights 11 uponthe platform 12 and cause the platform 9 to descend and the platform 12to ascend. It will therefore be seen that by placing certain weightsupon one platform and the receptacle upon the opposite platform that theproduct may be readily weighed and in order to stop the flow of theproduct after a predetermined quantity has been deposited in thereceptacle, I provide a swinging door 13 which is hingedly secured toone wall of the chute at a point below the floor section 6 so that whensaid door is elevated the opening 7 will be closed and the productprevented from descending into the receptacle and in order to quicklydispose the door over the opening I direct around the hinge 14, a coiledspring 15, the tension of the spring being sufficient to elevate thedoor 13 and hold the same against the pressure of the product in thechute.

In order to hold the door 13 in its opened position so that the grainproducts will pass into the receptacle 8, I hingedly secure to the lowerface of the door 13, an arm 16, the upper end of which is provided witha finger 17 which is adapted to enter a notch 18 in a trigger 19, saidtrigger being pivotally secured to one face of the chute 5, and extendslaterally therefrom, the notch 18 being adjacent the pivotal point ofthe trigger so that the weight of the trigger beyond the notch willcause the trigger to firmly engage the finger and hold the door 13 inits opened position.

A standard 20 is disposed between the outer end of the trigger 19 andthe platform 12 so that when the platform 12 is in its lowered position,the trigger 19 will rest in engagement with the finger 17, as soon,however, as a sufficient quantity of the grain product has passed intothe receptacle 8 to overcome the weights 11, the ascending platform 12will elevate the standard which will result in freeing the finger 17from the notch 18 and allow the door 13 to be closed by the spring 15.

To enable me to readily open the door 13, I provide a bifurcated lever21 which is pivotally secured to the chute 5 and adjacent the lower endthereof, the extreme outer ends of the bifurcated portion extendingbeyond that side of the chute upon which is disposed the trigger 19 andhas mounted therebetween a roller 22, said roller being in the path ofthe arm 16 so that when the trigger is elevated the arm 16 will descendand rest upon the roller 22 and it will be seen that by depressing thehandle portion of the lever, the door 13 will be swung open and thefinger 17 again directed into engagement with the notch 18. It will thusbe seen that by varying the Weights 11 upon the platform 12 that thequantity of grain product to be deposited in the receptacle 8 will bevaried and as soon as a sufficient quantity of the grain products havebeen deposited in the receptacle to overcome the weights, the door 13will be released and allowed to close and remains in this position untilthe grain products have been removed from the receptacle and the dooragain opened.

In order to readily remove the contents of the receptacle withoutlifting the receptacle from the platform 9, I provide a spout 23 whichis attached to one face of the receptacle and at the lower end thereof,said spout being inclined so that the contents of the receptacle willreadily flow therethrough and in order to hold the grain products frompassing through the spout until such time as it is desired to empty thereceptacle, I provide a sliding closure 24 which is disposed within thereceptacle and adapted to normally rest over the upper end of the spout.

In Figs. 4 and 5 of the drawing, I have shown a slightly modified formof device in that the receptacle 8 is dispensed with and a bag 25disposed below the lower end of the chute 5 to catch the descendinggrain products and I have also shown a slightly modified form of meansfor operating the trigger 19 and in this instance I secure to theplatform 9, a pair of standards 26 which are held in alinement with eachother by means of blocks 27 and 28 at the lower and upper ends thereof,respectively, and the standards are secured to the platform 9 in anypreferred manner by means of a clamp 29.

Secured to the block 28 and adjacent one end thereof is a trip arm 30,said trip arm being secured to the block 28 by means of a hinge 31 whilethe free end of the trip arm is directed over a reach bar 32 carried bya portion of the frame 1, said reach bar forming a fulcrum for the triparm when the standards are moved upwardly and downwardly by the actionof the scales. The extreme free end of the trip arm 30 is provided witha latch 33 which extends to one side of the trip arm and is providedwith a depression 34 in which the outer end of the trigger 19 is adaptedto rest so that when the platform 9 is depressed, the outer end of thetrigger 19 will be elevated to release the finger 17 from the notch 18in the trigger and allow the door 13 to close.

For convenience in holding the mouth of the bag in juxtaposition to thelower end of the chute 5, I secure hooks 35 to the standards 26 so thatby directing the mouth of the bag around the lower end of the chute 5and into engagement with the hooks 35, the bag will be held open toreceive the contents of the chute and positively supported upon theplatform 9.

In operation the hopper 2 is filled with the article to be weighed and aportion of the contents of the hopper will descend into the chute 5 andfill the same, the flow of the contents of the hopper being stopped assoon as the chute has become suiliciently filled to surround thedepending end of the outlet pipe 4. As soon as it is desired to weigh acertain amount of the contents of the hopper the door 13 is opened andthe arm pivotally secured thereto, directed into engagement with thetrigger to hold the door open. Previous to opening the door, however,one or more weights, determined by the amount of the product to beweighed, is placed upon the platform 12 so that when enough of theproduct has descended into the receptacle to overcome the weights 1placed upon the platform 12, the receptacle end of the scale beam willdescend and that end of the beam containing the weights will ascendwhich will result in operating the trigger and releasing the door 13whereupon the spring 15 will dispose the door over the opening 7 andstop the flow of the product through the chute 5.

The operation of the device shown in Fig. 4 is slightly different inthat the descending of the platform 9 will elevate the free end of thetrip arm 30 and operate the trigger 19, the standards in this instancebeing secured to the platform 9 instead of to the platform 12. As soon Ias the product has been weighed, the same is removed from the platform 9so that the weights will again cause the platform 12 to descend andraise the platform 9 to its initial position and by again opening thedoor 13 the weighing operation is repeated.

It will now be seen that I have provided a very cheap and accuratedevice for automatically weighing various articles and one not requiringan attendant after the same has been set in operation and while I haveshown and described the same as employed for weighing smaller quantitiesof different products it will be readily understood that the same may beemployed for weighing the articles in larger quantities.

What I claim is:

1. In a weighing device the combination with a pair of scales having aplatform at each end thereof; of a receptacle adapted to rest upon oneof said platforms, a hopper above said receptacle, a chute between saidhopper and receptacle, a floor in said chute having an opening therein,a closure for said opening, means to automatically dispose said closureover the opening, an arm pivotally secured to said closure, a triggerpivotally secured to said chute and having a notch therein adapted toreceive the upper end of said arm and hold the closure in its openedposition, and means between said trigger and scales to elevate saidtrigger and release the arm when the scales are operated to weigh tllecontents of the receptacle.

2. In a weighing device the combination with a pair of scales; of areceptacle adapted to be mounted on one end of said scales, a hopperadapted to hold articles to be weighed, a chute below said hopper and injuxtaposition to the lower end thereof, a floor in said chute having anopening therethrough, a door hingedly secured to one wall of said chuteand adapted to extend over said opening, means to automatically directsaid door over the opening, an arm pivotally secured to said door, afinger at the upper end of said arm, a trigger secured to the chutehaving a notch therein to receive said finger whereby the door will beheld in its opened position, a standard disposed between the outer endof said trigger and one end I of the scales whereby when a predeterminedquantity of the article to be weighed has descended from the chute intothe receptacle the trigger will be elevated and the I arm released andthe door disposed over the opening in l the floor of the chute.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDGAR II. SIIORMAN.

Witnesses GEO. W. Tenn, EDWIN GAmmTsON.

